2074 Tasting Notes

I drank this one yesterday afternoon but didn’t log it as I got wrapped up in work. I had to skip my two Hawaiian Lupicia blends in my chronology because they live at home and I keep forgetting to bring some of the sachets in to have at work. Must try to remember!

By smell of the dry leaf alone, this tea seems like it will be overwhelming in the flavoring and floral department. It’s INTENSE. But once it’s brewed it mellows considerably. I had this one yesterday when it was still le printemps outside (today it is l’hiver again! snowing!), and it was so pleasant. Fruity, creamy, and a nice helping of rose; yes please! I thought I didn’t like rose and vanilla together (bad previous tea experiences) but this one (and a few other French teas) proves me wrong.

So I’d be lying if I said that I haven’t been drinking this one all out of order for my chronology lately. It’s been “coming up” in the list for a while now and there were a number of teas I thought I was going to have to skip because they were at home (but then I actually drank them this weekend). I never got around to writing a tasting note for this any time recently, though, so it’s still in order.

All of which is to say, I apparently like this tea quite a bit. The flavors don’t quite stick out at me, but It’s fruity, it’s rosey, it’s just a pleasant blend that I enjoy enough to reach for it fairly frequently. Funny how some blends get like that! I guess it’s a good thing that the blend I reach for frequently is one that I have a large amount of, although it would probably be good to reach for some of the other 100g tins occasionally as well!

Preparation

Out of my chronology for a moment. After working out in the yard this afternoon I was hot and tired so I came in, shook some of this with ice and water and basically chugged it. I probably used a bit too much matcha for the amount of water I had, but it was still pretty tasty. Grassy with tasty sea buckthorn accompanying it. This is one of the only matchas that I never drink with milk because milk and sea buckthorn don’t go together for me. Thankfully I like it plenty on it’s own with just water.

It’s over 80°F here today, so it’s been a mostly iced-tea afternoon. This is one of the teas on my chronology, although I’ve had it fairly frequently and out of order throughout this project because often on the weekend I am limited in my selection. That and apparently I’ve been feeling rosey lately.

But now is it’s time, so I am having it again. Today I used Lupicia’s Royal Milk Tea Recipe. It came on one of their newsletters this winter and I clipped it out and put it on my fridge because it really makes the best milk tea. (I reproduced it in this note for Assam Calcutta Auction: http://steepster.com/dinosara/posts/219625). This time I didn’t heat the milk, added 2 tsp of sugar, and I shook the whole thing with an ice cube to make iced rose milk tea, and let me tell you, it was delicious! Just like getting an iced rose milk tea in Beijing. I forsee doing this often this summer.

Side note, I went onto Lupicia’s site to see if they had the milk tea recipe on there and it’s there but not easy to link to and makes a ton of tea at a time instead of just a cup. ANYWAY, the “featured” recipe on their main page (http://www.lupiciausa.com/v/static/enjoy-tea/tea-recipes.html) is for Marshmallow Peach Tea… tea with marshmallows added? You be crazy, Lupicia, although that does sound kind of awesome anyway.

I keep my (very large) tin of this tea at home for all of my weekend Earl Grey needs. I really should bust it open more often.

This was a very tasty Earl for the morning. It has enough heft to stand up to breakfast but still remains smooth and easy to drink without additions. It’s a nice, very bergamotty Earl that is pretty simple, but sometimes you just need a simple Earl. I’m sure I will be drinking this tin for years to come, but I have a feeling it will age well.

Ok, time to catch up on tasting notes. The other day I was thinking about whether I really should keep on with my Verdant Blends Club because there is usually only one of the three each month that I’m interested in. But then I had a cup of this tea. It’s not available as a normal blend on their site, and what I have of it is from the box and also I swiped OMGsrsly’s.

Teas like this make it worth it for me. It really is deliciously like a spiced sugar cookie to me. I don’t really care for genmaicha usually, but this is certainly an exception. It is a blend that speaks to me, although apprently it doesn’t speak to many others as it’s not one that they decided to make permanent. Ah well, I will savor what I have.

Preparation

For once in my chronology I actually remembered to have one of the teas that live at home while I was home on the weekend. More than one, even (more tasting notes to come).

I made myself a nice milk-ice-matchaccino blend today to have with lunch, and it was delicious. Why don’t I drink this more often? I really should be making it on my super early mornings that always make me drag all day. It’s really not that much effort to blend it with some milk in my single-serving blender. Caramelly, sweet but not too sweet, generally delicious! I have two gigantic bags of it so even if I drank it every morning it would probably take me forever to get through it. Must drink more matcha!

Next in the chronology! Today I got the crazy idea to steep this one as I might steep an unflavored dragonwell, which is to say more leaf and less time.

And wouldn’t you know it, it was really quite good! I love that this really tastes like pumpkin. So many pumpkin teas (including others I’ve had from 52teas) just taste like generic “pumpkin spice” and only the spice part, but this is actually pumpkiny. The dragonwell provides a nice buttery base. The only thing about this one that I don’t really get is the toffee; to me, it’s a nice pumpkin dragonwell, but a caramelized toffee doesn’t quite come through in the flavor. All the same, it’s one of the better pumpkin teas I’ve tried, and I will have to try to remember to drink it more frequently (maybe this fall; it’s not really pumpkin season anymore!)

I have stalled out on my “cupboard chronology” tasting after getting a number of new teas I really wanted to try! But I really should get back on track, which is what I’m doing now. Actually this one is all out of place; it should have been back with the other Tea Spot teas, but I accidentally removed it from my cupboard at one point and had to add it back, so it got out of chronology. Ah well.

I almost never go for this tea because I have so many others that I love more, but that’s not to say that it isn’t a very tasty tea. It is! I wish I could cold brew it because I would drink it more frequently, but the licorice root gets super nasty in the cold brew. Hot brewed, it just adds a faint sweetness to the cup that is pleasant. This is a nice creamy, vanilla-y, and most importantly bergamotty EGC, and I it’s nice to have around for if I ever really want an EGC. Although I don’t seem to crave those all that often.

Preparation

I had an early, exhausting morning of teaching and now I’m in a semi-awake afternoon slump. I needed tea! Not just any tea, though, tea to get me going! Full steam ahead? Thanks to Sil for a sample of this one!

At first I was a bit meh about the flavor of this one. While it was still quite hot it was a bit flat and had a bitter edge. As it cooled to warm it got better and better. Suddenly the bitterness is gone and instead there is a nice depth of flavor. It reminds me of a black dragon pearl, except not pearl-ized, so I would guess that this has its roots in a Fengqing black tea. A bit chocolatey, a bit malty, a hint of grains. Overally quite tasty once it cooled, but I am going to ding it a bit for the not so awesome hot flavor. We’ll see how the next cup goes, maybe it’ll get adjusted. But definitely a nice tasty black tea.

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Bio

I am tea obsessed, with the stash to match. I tend to really enjoy green oolongs, Chinese blacks, and flavored teas with high quality bases, especially florals, bergamot-based teas, and chocolate teas.

In my free time I am a birder, baker, and music/movie/tv addict.

Here are my rating categories, FYI:
100-90: Mind-blowingly good, just right for my palate, and teas that just take me to a happy place.
89-86: I really really like these teas and will keep most of them in the permanent collection, but they’re not quite as spectacular as the top category
85-80: Pretty tasty teas that I enjoy well enough, but definitely won’t rebuy when I run out.
79-70: Teas that I would probably drink again, but only if there were no preferrable options.
69-50: Teas that I don’t really enjoy all that much and wouldn’t drink another cup of.
49 and below: Mega yuck. This tea is just disgusting to me.
Unrated: Usually I feel unqualified to rate these teas because they are types of teas that I tend to not like in general. Sometimes user error or tea brewed under poor conditions.